Spathodea campanulata P. Beauv. tree failure parameters after an extreme weather event

ABSTRACT

Catastrophic windstorms attributed to climate change are expected to increase in the upcoming period, causing damage to trees, particularly in tropical climates where most damage arises during storms. In October 2019, the city of Viçosa (Minas Gerais, Brazil) was affected by heavy rain and winds of 82.4 km/h. It provoked extensive damage to the urban trees on the university campus, where individuals of the Spathodea campanulata were affected. The objective of this study was (1) to determine tree failure parameters – previous studies were used to assess the tree risk failure of the species and its diagnosis after an extreme climatic event – and (2) to classify the damage as: irreversible, intermediate and without damage according to the parameters on the evaluation form. An analysis was carried out considering whether the damage class parameters were observed, discarding the weights assigned to each one (originally applied by the methodology). Later these weights were used in the application of Fisher’s statistical tests and Pearson’s Chi-Square. The general analysis indicated that among 28 parameters used in the visual evaluation, nine were associated with the occurrence of irreversible damage to the trees. After the statistical analysis, the conclusions indicated that six of the parameters were significant.

KEYWORDS:

• Urban trees
• Urban planning
• Wind
• Failure potential

Acknowledgments

To Capes for granting the scholarship.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior.

Notes on contributors

Tamílis Das Graças Emerick

Tamílis Das Graças Emerick has a degree in Forest Engineering and a master’s degree in Forest Science from the Federal University of Viçosa, where she is currently studying for a PhD in the Postgraduate Program in Forest Science. She is a specialist in Urban Afforestation from the Federal University of São Paulo and works in lines of research focusing on urban afforestation and landscaping.

Angeline Martini

Angeline Martini has a degree, master’s and doctorate in Forestry Engineering from the Federal University of Paraná. She is currently Associate Professor C-2 at the Federal University of Viçosa. She has experience in teaching (undergraduate and graduate), research and extension in the area of Forest Resources and Forest Engineering, with an emphasis on Nature Conservation, working mainly on the themes: Urban Forests/Arborization, Landscape Planning and Recovery of Degraded Areas. His main lines of research are native ornamental plants, urban afforestation, urban climate and arboriculture.

Leonardo Bhering

Leonardo Bhering has a degree in Agronomy from the Federal University of Viçosa, a master’s degree in Genetics and Plant Breeding from the Federal University of Lavras, a doctorate in Genetics and Breeding from the Federal University of Viçosa and a post-doctorate from the University of California Riverside - USA. He is currently Associate Professor 3 at the Federal University of Viçosa, where he coordinated the Graduate Program in Genetics and Breeding. He is the author of the software Rbio (Biometrics in R) and works mainly in the area of genetics, with an emphasis on biometrics.